I've been in two different hospitals in both my first and second semesters and come up against some ROUGH nurses who would rather do everything themselves than let me touch a thing.
I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that they are BUSY, they have a TO-DO list, they have patients that NEED meds, help, EVERYTHING. But, I'm here to help. I'm wearing these bright purple scrubs not because I like the color, but because I want to learn, I NEED to learn. I will take them to the bathroom, I will bathe them, I will take their vitals, just PLEASE let me.
When I say 80% of the nurses I've followed have done NOTHING with me I am not exaggerating. Why is this? Last week the nurse I was following wouldn't even let me take vitals, VITALS!! I am in my second semester of nursing school, I think I can handle that.
Anyway, I wanted to know whats up with that! I recognize that they are busy. I also recognize the few nurses that have taken me under their wing and shown me SO MUCH. I'm thankful for that, and grateful.
Because they dislike novice, student nurses. People like that need to crawl back into the cave they came out of. Talk to your clinical instructor.. The hospitals have contracts with your school so they MUST comply. Hang in there
Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
The contract is not for the staff nurses to instruct but that faculty & students get access to the floor & patients for the clinical instructor to teach. Schools do not pay facilities. Instructors are paid to teach. Students are a guest on the floor, it's a privilege not a right. With the exception of clinical preceptorships where facility nurse educators work with schools to set up 1:1 relationships student to qualified nurse preceptor.
I enjoy teaching students. But, as stated in many previous posts, a staff nurse is stretched soon thin. We are expected to do so much and take ok n so many roles that we just can't possibly fine the time needed to really safely teach along the way. It's my license on the line, so to delegate to a student I don't know can be difficult. Again, I enjoy teaching and I remember being the student so I really try to help but it's very very difficult.
I am also a clinical instructor and I try to be very hands on with my students and I find that I am met with resistance
The students always claim they are okay and fine and don't need a thing. What can I do to help the staff nurse and student in this situation? How can I be a more effective educator? I'm telling you, I round frequently and end up bored with nothing to do. Any advice. Sorry to tale over your post, I just thought it related
...on another note....trust me..it's not the "faculty taking the money" ...maybe we dean but msn educators are practically paid as much as their new grads they taught. Smh.
It's like having an extra, high-acuity patient. Nothing you do benefits me. You actually put me behind. You can say "but... but... I take patients to the BATHROOM! But... I can do an assessment! But... I can pass MEDS!"
Well, the bathroom thing only benefits the CNA. And I have to do my own assessment anyway. Looking over yours and fixing/deleting it takes extra time I do not have.
Then I have to double check that you actually did the meds, then do the paperwork because they are inevitably late, because no student ever tries to get their instructor to give 0900s early. Nope. They start looking for the CI at 0900. And if you are 1:1 with me, we have to go over the meds so I can make sure you know what you are doing and aren't about to give our patient with a 2.8 K and a BP of 90/50 some Lasix. Which triples the time it takes to do meds.
And I don't get any extra time or extra money to deal with the extra work. The charge nurse doesn't take a patient away from my assignment to give me time to deal with you. So my already strenuous assignment becomes even worse.
And this is assuming you're a good student. If you're a bad student and clinically unsafe, then the workload doubles.
While I would love to be able to teach you, that's not my job. It's actually detrimental to my job. That is a reality that you need to get used to.
I didn't realize until this post that not every facility charges to allow nursing students in. In Miami, the hospitals have a fee that they place on the schools. Outside of that some agreements involve non cash forms of payment such as discounts for the hospital's personnel if they wish to go to that school/university. And some hospitals, of course, get none of that and yet still write agreements with schools. Different areas of the country means different ways of doing it.
However, benefits or not.. the floor nurses still don't get paid to take on the students.
I also didn't realize before this thread that CIs were just dumping students off and vanishing. That's... interesting. I've never had that happen.
Finally, I didn't realize that there are facilities that actually let the students chart. None of the ones around here do.
Here's my experience with students. They come drifting in 30, 40 minutes after shift change, so they've missed report. They expect me to tell them all about my patients - understandable, because you can't do any prep in the ER - and then answer questions with a shrug, grunt, or "dunno."
I ask them if there is anything that they want to learn about or do, because the ER is different than other units, and so they'll have opportunities that the floors don't offer. I'm lucky if I get a response. Same if I ask them off they want to do IVs or give meds.
I know that with a student, a task that would take me five minutes will instead take 15. Sometimes longer.
The odd student that wants to help? Yay. Wait...they're busy doing things that are dangerous, wrong, or put things at risk. And if it's busy?
And then they go to lunch. "I'll be back in 30!" Two hours later...
Really, of I'm getting a student for a single shift, then it's easiest for me if they just shadow. And no, I'm not getting anything out of it. Preceptor pay is only for orienting new hires, not students. And getting even a thank you out of them is very, very rare, because it's like they all have the attitude that I'm supposed to bend over backwards for them. Well, my crashing patient who is about to be intubated tells me otherwise.
Because they dislike novice, student nurses. People like that need to crawl back into the cave they came out of. Talk to your clinical instructor.. The hospitals have contracts with your school so they MUST comply. Hang in there
Ah. Now that I've seen your posting history, and see you have had MANY years of being a student... with many....issues....I see that you are just grinding your axe.
So it turns out you meant your post to be serious, and not funny. Oh my.
Because they dislike novice, student nurses. People like that need to crawl back into the cave they came out of. Talk to your clinical instructor.. The hospitals have contracts with your school so they MUST comply. Hang in there
In every nursing education situation in which I've been involved, the contracts between the schools and hospitals specify conditions that the schools "MUST comply" with in order to be allowed into the hospitals to do clinicals, not the other way around. Hospitals are doing the schools a favor. The staff nurses are under no obligation to provide any instruction to students.
I enjoy teaching students. But, as stated in many previous posts, a staff nurse is stretched soon thin. We are expected to do so much and take ok n so many roles that we just can't possibly fine the time needed to really safely teach along the way. It's my license on the line, so to delegate to a student I don't know can be difficult. Again, I enjoy teaching and I remember being the student so I really try to help but it's very very difficult.
I am also a clinical instructor and I try to be very hands on with my students and I find that I am met with resistance
The students always claim they are okay and fine and don't need a thing. What can I do to help the staff nurse and student in this situation? How can I be a more effective educator? I'm telling you, I round frequently and end up bored with nothing to do. Any advice. Sorry to tale over your post, I just thought it related
My CI's were never bored. We were required to check meds with them, check procedures before doing them, etc. In the beginning, they held our hands and helped us in the room. Not everyone got to do everything because the CI would be so busy. At the end, they usually didn't come in the room with us anymore, but we still always, always had to check our meds. Giving a med or doing an invasive procedure without telling our instructor first would get us dismissed. If they had free time, then they would grade our care plans so they didn't have to do it at home. You have to remember that these are students with no nursing experience. Even if they think they are fine, there is ALWAYS something you could pull them aside and teach.
leo8686
19 Posts
Because they dislike novice, student nurses. People like that need to crawl back into the cave they came out of. Talk to your clinical instructor.. The hospitals have contracts with your school so they MUST comply. Hang in there